Method to purify magnesium chloride to produce a flux for molten magnesium

ABSTRACT

a method to remove organic impurities, such as Grignard reagents, from an impure magnesium chloride by heating the magnesium chloride in a vacuum at a temperature of up to about 500° C, and preferably from about 300° to about 500° C, and recovering a purified magnesium chloride product. The purified product is preferably added to a molten bath including potassium chloride and commercially pure magnesium chloride at a temperature of at least about 426° C and preferably from about 450° to about 760° C. The bath is thereafter solidified into a desired size and used as a flux for molten magnesium. Upon solidification, the magnesium treated with flux including the purified magnesium chloride has a finer grain size than magnesium treated with a similar flux containing commercially pure magnesium chloride.



